Loading ...Poll: Best movie about dads and kids?
January 26th, 2010Best movies about dads and kids for 2009? You pick ‘em.
January 26th, 2010And the winner is…
We asked GreatDad visitors what movies they thought were best to highlight the dad/child relationship. Among 30, sometimes completely off-topic or off-year suggestions, these five films were the top contenders:
Ben Stiller wrestles with extinct beasts, historical figures, and meddling monkeys in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the sequel to the popular 2006 special-effects extravaganza.
At a time when too many animated films consist of anthropomorphized animals cracking sitcom one-liners and flatulence jokes, the warmth, originality, humor, and unflagging imagination of Up feel as welcome as rain in a desert.
A widower who realized his only connection to his family was through his wife sets off on an impromptu road trip to reunite with each of his grown children.
A post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible.
A comedy about a man who learns that the things you want most may not be the things that make you happy, and that being lonely is not necessarily the same as being alone.
A sports writer becomes a single parent in tragic circumstances.
We’ll be opening a poll to tally votes on the blog and GreatDad.com homepage. Feel free to opine below however. I think UP should come off the list. If anything, it’s a film about a boy who’s dad isn’t present, and suffers until he finds Mr. Frederickson.
(Movie descriptions courtesy IMDB and Amazon).
Brave New World: Second Pregnant Man, Due To Give Birth In February (PHOTOS)
January 26th, 2010Okay, so he, and his partner, were both born with female equipment, but this still makes for quite a headline.
Another man has gotten himself pregnant and is due to give birth next month, the UK’s Daily Mail reports.
Scott and his husband, Thomas, were both born female and have undergone surgery to become men. Scott, born Laura, had his 36DDD breasts removed but still has female sex organs as his parents couldn’t afford the full surgery.
[From Scott Moore, Second Pregnant Man, Due To Give Birth In February (PHOTOS)]
But to really get us, we want to see a man carry a baby somehow wrapped around all the rest of the stuff in this stomach and then suckle the child for six months with his God-given man-boobies. Then we’ll stop the presses.
New JPMA crib guidelines
January 22nd, 2010One of the big changes at the ABC Kids Show last fall was the disappearance of cribs with up and and down gates. Continuing improvements in safety can help cut crib deaths.
For Crib Safety Month in January, the JPMA suggests the following safety tips to protect the baby and sustain the proper lifespan of your crib:
- Parents should not use any crib with missing, broken or loose parts. Make sure to tighten hardware from time to time to keep the crib sturdy.
- Crib slats or spindles should be spaced no more than 2 3/8 inches apart, and none should be loose or missing. Also NEVER use a crib with corner posts over 1/16 of an inch above the end panels (unless they’re over 16 inches high, such as for a canopy).
- Never place infants to sleep on pillows, sofa cushions, adult beds, waterbeds, beanbags, or any other surface not specifically designed for infant sleep. NEVER place the crib near windows, draperies, blinds, or wall mounted decorative accessories with long cords.
- When using a drop side crib parents and caregivers should check to make sure the drop side or any other moving parts operate smoothly. Always check all sides and corners of the crib for disengagement. Disengagements can create a gap and entrap a child. In addition, do not try to repair any side of the crib, especially with duct tape, wire or rope. Parents should be sure that hardware is installed properly. When assembling and disassembling drop side cribs, parents should always confirm that the parts are reassembled following the manufacturer’s guidelines as listed in the instructions.
Additional safety tips to sustain the proper lifespan of your crib:
- Always check all sides and corners of the crib to assure proper assembly with no openings that may entrap a child. The crib mattress should fit snugly with no more than two fingers width, one-inch, between the edge of the mattress and the crib side. Otherwise, the baby can get trapped between the mattress and the side of the crib.
- Do not try to repair any side of the crib without manufacturer approved hardware.
- Putting a broken side up against the wall does not solve the problem and can often make it worse.
- Many older cribs do not meet all current safety standards. Even if you are on a tight budget, you should not purchase an old crib at a garage sale or accept a hand-me-down crib that may not meet Federal and ASTM standards.
On my desk this week – The Military Father by Armin Brott
January 21st, 2010The Military Father – Our good friend and partner, Armin Brott, has finally come out with a book that he has wanted to write for a long time. The Military Father provides hands-on advice for parents before, during and after deployment. Armin is a former Marine and brings first-hand knowledge to this subject. The book features advice for dads whether it is the dad OR the mom being deployed, including easy-to-use pre-deployment checklists.
As always, Armin brings his straightforward and easily readable style to the subject. The book is both heart-warming and humorous, and has tips for any dads, even outside the military, who have to be separated from their families for significant time.
Sorry about our broken header on GreatDad.com/GreatDadBlog
January 21st, 2010It’s been out of order for 3 days after I tried to “automatically” update the WordPress software. If anyone has a quick fix, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll try to get it back to normal tomorrow.
Paid online access to New York Times – my opinion
January 21st, 2010As a publisher, I’m happy to see the New York Times take a real lead on paid content. I’ve always thought that the Web wants to be “FREE,” but everyone knows that anything that is always given away free turns into garbage. And that’s the road most print publications are on unless they change their model. The New York Times can’t continue to create leadership journalism as it watches home delivery and newsstand sales dwindle to those few remaining octogenarians who want the inky, bulky broadsheet hanging into their cereal (Full disclosure: I’m one of them). While Google AdSense can make publishers a few dimes and nickels each month, it’s revenue potential is way over-stated and decreasing. There has to be another way.
I love the NYT solution for the following reasons:
1. It provides a benefit and distinction for home subscribers. Part of this reaction is selfish, since I’ve subscribed since I lived in New York fifteen years ago. But it stands to reason that you promote sales by giving benefits to the people who increase your value as an asset. And, advertisers like to see paid subscription since it connotes involvement.
2. It allows people to get a little bit for free. They haven’t yet said how many articles per month you will get for “free” as a non-subscriber, but it’s at least ten, that should give you enough to read your favorite columnists or features every month. Beyond that, as with public radio, you really should be donating something anyway.
3. It keeps the NYT open to Google and Bing searches. I always thought this was the way things should go. Allow the NYT to be searchable via search engines so people can find the best info online and perhaps discover the Times.
4. Most importantly, it still allows bloggers to tell the world about stories they find in the NYT, without resorting to copying articles wholesale. I often make a comment on an article, providing an interesting snipped with a link to the full article. The NYT will still allow this though clicking the link will count towards the monthly quota for unpaid users. This should help the New York Time get more readers while not destroying their model.
This is the system the New Yorker should use as well. It’s fun to send an great article to someone who is not a reader. It’s not good if someone is reading the whole thing on line while everyone else is paying. And face it, a new generation of readers is growing up and they are happy reading a book or magazine on an iPhone rather than a physical magazine.
Hats off to the New York Times.
Top internet searches for kids identified – “Sex” and “Porn” near the top of lists
January 20th, 2010
What were kids most interested in and curious about in 2009? Parents can tell a lot from monitoring internet searches, which may also alert them to possible topics they may need to discuss with their kids. On a more macro level, Norton has identified the top searches conducted by kids in 2009 through data from OnlineFamily.Norton, a free family safety service that parents can use to protect kids online.
Do You Know What Your Kids Are Looking For Online?
Norton looked at the top 100 searches conducted by kids age 18 and under and also broke down results by age and gender. Some of the top terms may surprise parents. “Sex” and “Porn” made it to the top overall search terms for both Teens group and “Sex” for the Tweens group. These terms should raise a red flag to parents if they haven’t had “The Talk” with their children about content that may not be appropriate for kids. Kids’ top three overall search terms in 2009 were YouTube, Google, and Facebook. While these sites can be entertaining and educational for kids under supervision, parents need to monitor usage and talk to kids about appropriate and inappropriate things they may find on-line.
Teens’ Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Facebook 3. Google 4. Sex
5. MySpace 6. Porn 7. Yahoo 8. Youtube.com 9. eBay
10. Wikipedia
Tweens’ Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Google 3. Facebook 4. Sex
5. Club Penguin 6. Youtube.com 7. You Tube 8. Miniclip
9. Yahoo 10. eBay
7 & Under Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Google 3. Facebook 4. Porn
5. Club Penguin 6. Yahoo 7. Webkinz 8. You Tube
9. Games 10. Miniclip
We use Safari installed on a Mac in our family room that the kids use periodically to play games. When they are logged into their account, Safari only allows them to surf to sites we’ve approved. We don’t allow them to look at YouTube and other sites without us being there to control the buttons. Our kids are still only 5 and 9 so that is bound to change soon.
Norton offers the basic OnlineFamily.Norton at no charge, but plans to launch a premium subscription version later in 2010.
Love this post on making homemade snowglobes!
January 20th, 2010This is dead easy. All you need is a little time. Kids love making stuff that they previously thought was rare and only available at a certain spot. I make fortune cookies. We stuff them with fortunes tailored to our family and my kids’ friends.
HOMEMADE SNOW GLOBE
Create the enchanting magic of a snow globe at home. Watch your favorite little objects get covered in silvery snow!
Materials:
* Clear glass jar with screw-on lid
* Waterproof figures or objects that will fit into the jar (Plastic is best)
* Hot glue, or other waterproof glue (Aquarium sealant from a pet store, or clear silicone caulk from the hardware store are both excellent for this craft, though each takes longer to dry than hot glue.)
* Silver or white glitter
* Cold waterRead the rest of the easy directions at Easy Winter Crafts for Kids - Grandparents.com.
Shed another tear for Conan O’Brien
January 20th, 2010It’s such a tragic tale. 2010: a year of continued misery with more people out of work and even more without insurance or health care. A working man is told by his employer that his new work hours will be 30 minutes later each day. The number of workday hours will remain unchanged as will everything about his pay and benefits. The worker, feeling the injustice of it all, that he alone has to suffer the indignities of a later start time, quits his job and demands compensation. His employer, fearful of God-only-knows-what, acquiesces, giving him a severance package of $40,000,000. Yes, 40 MILLION DOLLARS.
Why anyone is on “Conan’s side” in this issue is a mystery. Why does every star in America think celebrity is an entitlement. We’ve created a world where people think if you make it on American Idol, you’re golden for the rest of your life. America was built on a dream that if you work hard, you’ll get a chance to work hard again tomorrow. Now we think sports stars and celebrities are somehow unique in their abilities. This translates into a belief that everyone is entitled to a payday for showing up. This fantasy is dangerous in the times we live in because a global marketplace will not allow us to indulge in a delusion that we are the only ones who can do any job. When a new Chinese or Indian host steals Conan’s new job, whatever it is, away from him, we may see that no one is irreplaceable. Not on the assembly line, not in the NFL and not on NBC.
Workers need to wise up to two facts. There is no lifetime employment and no one should expect to get the job just because it’s their turn (didn’t Bob Dole learn this the hard way in 1996?). And they need to mobilize as a group to ensure better compensation and board representation so that they are more fairly compensated now, rather than waiting for a gold watch after 30 years of service.
I like the logic in this article that Conan is just one step above the Wall Streeters whose big bailout bonuses are the source of so much populist anger:
Conan O’Brien is expected to receive some $40 million for leaving NBC, the media unit of General Electric (GE), itself among the largest recipients of taxpayer help. While it would be a stretch to compare the late-night talk show host to a Goldman Sachs (GS) or Citigroup (C) banker, he’s arguably only a few steps removed.
…
But without the FDIC’s largesse, the group’s troubled financial arm, GE Capital, would have struggled to fund its $650 billion balance sheet. That, in turn, could have forced its parent to liquidate assets, starting with NBC. In a truly worst-case scenario, GE might have even had to seek protection from its creditors.
Had GE been forced to dump NBC in a fire-sale, new owners could have demanded changes to contracts like Mr. O’Brien’s. True, that’s not the same as, say, a Citi banker fighting for a bonus after the government clearly bailed out the bank. But it’s only a few steps removed. So a bit of thanks to taxpayers from Mr. O’Brien may be in order.
[From Conan O’Brien: A $40 Million Bailout Recipient? -- Seeking Alpha]
